“Wedding”, Jakarta, 1995 

 

Tanah air translates

             to fatherland and to

motherland: I don’t know

             if this means the body

can only grow from one

             patch of clay, hollowed out

by the river-bank’s edge

             by our father, who art

in heaven, there is root

             and twine until the breath

leaves, until one, over

             comes into the other

(hallowed be thy name) and

             if this is why we are

unable to distinguish

             love from—

                       Mother, did he

say thy kingdom come?

             In the photograph, you wear

a lucent crown. I wonder how long it was

             until he purpled you a neck-

lace of matrimony, my face

             an inverted eye between

your two faces, I look

              (your will be done) a grave

blossoms on earth next to the

             river that will run clear

as it is in heaven.